Success

Every so often I get asked how I became successful. My question to any of you is what makes you think I am?

From a business standpoint, it’s important to establish your KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) in order to measure success. Often times, individuals don’t set personal KPIs. Goal-setting at work is generally something people do to check off a task list. However, without understanding where you want to go, how are you ever going to get there?

I spent my younger years just wanting to go to college. When I was in college, I just assumed that because I got good grades and believed in myself I would be successful. I had this arbitrary idea that success would just happen and I had no idea what to do with myself next.

I ended up taking an internship I didn’t want to do. During that internship, I networked and got promised a job that never actually became available. I ended up unemployed when my internship ended.

My driving motivation was that I could not let myself fail. Not how do I become successful, but how do I not fail?

I ended up getting a part time job so that I would have income and maybe a path. I set new standards and became full time. It was not without its challenges. I was in a leadership role, but they wouldn’t make me a manager. Then I learned how much a manager made and I realized that what I was doing wasn’t worth it.

I transitioned to the bottom of a different industry. My current title was Coordinator and this title was Coordinator so it seemed like a fit. It already paid more than I was making, had a better schedule, and a better commute. It was a completely different job, but I mastered it and moved up the ladder. I became a client manager, but not a people manager. My manager told me not to tell my clients thank you because she felt it cluttered their inbox. What did I know? I simultaneously went through a divorce and quickly became overwhelmed by everything in life.

I hit the lowest point of my life. I took a demotion so that I wouldn’t get fired because I had to support myself and my son. I watched one channel of TV with an antennae, struggled to do upkeep on my car, and I have a picture of an empty fridge.

I continued to live with the motivation that I could not fail. I had to support my son. Frankly, I also wanted to make more money than my ex husband and not need his child support. I always knew I could have done my ex’s job and it ate at me that I wasn’t more successful.

I began to date my now husband who is still my biggest cheerleader. You’d be surprised how much of an impact your spouse has on your career. I have 5x my salary since dating my current husband.

I applied for a job at Deloitte to do SAP. I’d never heard of Deloitte, but Solution Engineer sounded like a good title. I went to the (in person) interview with a folder of examples of my work with my clients. I also had hand-written thank you notes I gave them. I later got a call from a Senior Manager in the Workday practice. I started doing Workday at Deloitte making $63K a year. You know what? I thought that was pretty successful….at the time.

My Workday journey is a whole other article and the next chapter is about to start tomorrow. Stay tuned.